Charlotte home and Democrat., 1887-02-11
Is It Chance or nesien

nuu ~ ptcnSdub WOFAs 3H0 IL t8 pleasant
to speak about pleasant things. They are
so made as to Ike it, and they are made
to like the food that is best for them, and
to like nothing else. They are able to eat
what is good tor them, and are not able to
eat what would be bad. In eyery in-I
stance it is go. Thus, the mouth of every
creature reveals nearly everything about
the creature. 1t tells whether the creature
be animal, fish, insect or bird; whether it
Do savage or tame; whether it eats vege-
tables or flesh; whether it chews its food
before swallo wing it, or chews the cud, or
does not chew At all. Some birds find
suitable food in worms and small fish. :.
which creep about in water, on the banks
OF shallow lakes and rivers. But how are
they TO obtain their food when it is under
water? Theygha long legs, like stilts,
to wade in water; and they have long
necks and long bills, so as to reach any
thing at the bottom. Long tails would
be useless and inconvenient to them, for
the tails would dabble in the water. and
be trouble and a burden in seeking food; i
80 their tails are short, while their legs,
necks, and bills are long; all just as they
ought to be. Does all this look like
chance work2
These wading, long legged birds find
their food IN clear water, through which
the bottom can be distinctly seen from.
the top; but ducks find food in dirty wa.
ter, and mud. so that they cannot discover
it by sight. How then do they find itP
They have to feel for it. Most birds have
no more sense of feeling in their bills than
we in our teeth, but the duck has a very
sensitive skin fixed just at the end of it's
mouth, which becomes soft in water, and
by which it can easily distinguish eatables
from pebbles and mud. If the duck were
a long-legged bird it could not walk so
we'll on the mud in which it finds food. :.
Its feet would sink and stick fact. It is
therefore made with short legs and
webbed feet to swim, and even when the
water is too shallow to swim in, the webb
ed feet support its body on the mud.
Could anything be better than this? Do
you think it all came to be SO we'll and
wisely done by accident? or does it not
rather look as if some one had thought
about 1t before He made them; and had
contrived it all?
| may here add, by-the.way, that the
sensitive skin at the end of the ducks
bill makes it "weather-wise." There is q
strong sense of feeling there, owing to it's
being full of nerves. In dry air it be-
comes dry and stiff, but when the air is
very damp it imbibes moisture from the
air, which the duck feels to be pleasant,
and thereupon begins to quack noisily, as
boys in the street shout when they are
glad; thus the loud and general quacking
of ducks indicate rain.
Whenever we see working tools we
know to what trade they belong, and the
kind of work they are intended to do.
Each tool is designed to do q particular
kind of work and no other. Saws cannot
drive nails in wood, nor can hammers cut
through timber. Now, it is just so with
the mouths of living creatures; they are
working tools, and each is exactly adapted
to its work, which is to eat the very
food which its owner best likes, and
which is most useful to it. For instance,
the horse has no desire to eat flesh,
nor the tiger liking for grass. The
tigers stomach could not digest grass,
nor could that of horse digest flesh.
If chance had been the worlds creator
the tiger might have had grinding
| teeth, the horses, oxen end sheep, teeth to
| tear. But it is not so; the mouth and
teeth of every living thing are perfectly
suited to the work which is best to be done
for the well being of each. -
The same is noticeable in the strength
of the jaws. Look, for instance, at the
monkey and the squirrel. The squirrel is
an industrious little fellow in his way. bu,
the monkey is not so patient; he would
quickly eat what he has got; and then be
intent on some mischief or some prank
| Both animals delight to eat nuts. But
the squirrel, who cannot bend both arms
like the monkey, holds the nut in his mouth
with both paws, and he likes to nibble at
the she'll until he gets to the kernel
whereas, the monkey puts it into hil
mouth, gives it lustY crack, and eats the
kernel at once. This is what each likes te
do, and accordingly the monkey ia pro
vided with strong jaws, but the jaws o.
the squirrel are light, just as required
The front teeth with which it gnaws ar
very sharp; SO, also, is the front teeth O.
a rat, the beaver, and the porcupine, and
of all animals that have to nibble to get q
food. And what is remarkable, the sub
stance of which the poiutsof the teeth ar
formed is so hard as to never wear away
Were it not 30, their constant guawinf
would wear the teeth down. Even the edge
of hard steel saws wear away in work, ant
so would the nibbling animals teeth, wer
the edges made of bone-the same sub
stance as the other part of the teeth; bu
the edge or point of each tooth is formet
of solid enamel-the thin glaze kind o
material with which teeth are covere,
to protect them. This enamel is 30 hare
as scarcely ever to wear away by bitiny
How well all this is done. Could chanc
have done it?
The largest teeth are those of the hir
popotamus, or river horse, as the wor
means. They are like q set of tusks in il
mouth. It lives on reeds and coarse, thic
vegetable matter. It has just such teet
as are fit to tear and to divide tough an
hard plants. 1t eats enormously; If it di
not it could not live, for its food contain
little nourishment. And that it may b
J able to eat enormously, far more than th
J elephant, il has . stomach which hold
five or six bushels of food, and the larg
canal of its bowels are two feet rount
Here, again, you see how onething exactl
suits another, and all these things agre
with the places-reedy islets-where th
big beast has to live. II an infidel tell
you that chance arranged all this, he mui
be wicked, or else he must be mad.
Z .